For the last five years, eVolo Magazine has hosted a futuristic skyscraper design competition. Usually, the entrants imagine giant buildings taller than anything under construction today. However, the most impressive entry in this year's competition goes the opposite route, by dropping the building straight into the sea. This floating building would generate its own electricity and food, house thousands, and plunge deep beneath the waves.

Designed by Sarly Adre bin Sarkum of Malaysia, the waterscraper would be about as tall as the Empire State Building, but with only a couple of stories exposed above the surface. The whole building would be a self-sufficient, floating, arcology. Wind, solar, and wave power would provide energy, hydroponics and the green space at the top would provide food and oxygen, and the structure would provide housing, work spaces, and areas for recreation.

Ballast tanks would keep the structure level, like in a submarine, as would the tentacles. The tentacles would also move around in the ocean tides, generating electricity from kinetic energy.

Adre bin Sarkum deliberately designed this building to contrast with the skyscrapers that dominate the rest of the competition, and to highlight sustainable architecture.

Obviously, no one has any plans to build anything remotely like this. But if global warming throws us into a WaterWorld like future, Adre bin Sarkum's aqua-condo looks like much sweeter digs than a rickety boat captained by a urine-drinking fish-man.

Yep, it's a good time to be one of the haves. Volkswagen-owned Bugatti, maker of the wickedly fast and pricey Veyron, this week unveiled an ultra-luxury sedan for the upmost echelon of car buyers. It's the Galibier, which takes its name from a pass in the Alps traversed during the Tour de France. But does such a machine still have a place in this age of downscaled expectations and environmental responsibility? Before you answer, that's an entirely rhetorical question.

The Galibier shares with the Veyron its engine, an exercise in extreme motorworks: an 8.0-liter quad-turbocharged W16 producing 1001 horsepower (in the Veyron). That's enough to get the two-door Veyron to 253 miles per hour, though reports indicate the Galibier will only top out at a mere 217. Unlike the Veyron, the Galibier's engine is front-mounted and Bugatti says it can run on ethanol, though how many Iowa cornfields can be dispatched with every quarter-mile run has yet to be determined.

Outside, the Galibier's two-tone color scheme comprises polished aluminum and a dark blue carbon fiber weave that turns slightly translucent when illuminated. Just the thing for making a first impression whilst pulling into the Kleig-lit driveway of the local viscount's estate. No word yet on price, but consider a million bucks a probable starting point.

Happy 75th birthday to British automaker Jaguar! As a birthday present, they've actually given us something new to drool over: A 780 hp mostly-electric supercar capable of hitting 250 mph with a whopping 500-mile range, all wrapped in a body inspired by the 1966 XJ13, the car the chief designer calls "possibly the most beautiful Jaguar ever made."

Unveiled at this year's Paris Auto Show, the Jaguar C-X75 is a vision of the future, perhaps a decade or two from now, when high-efficiency, ridiculously high-powered electric cars are possible. The C-X75 is a hybrid, relying on four electric motors (one per wheel) rated at 195 hp each. Powered by a (one assumes absolutely massive) lithium ion battery pack, Jaguar says the two-seater car can get to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds, with a range of about 68 miles.

The battery works in pretty much the same way as other mostly-electric vehicles like Chevy's upcoming Volt. The car is powered exclusively by battery for the first 68 miles (the Volt gets about 40 miles, for comparison) and is then boosted by two small gas turbines. These turbines provide about 94 hp each, for a range of about 500 additional miles (the Volt's teeny gas engine nets about 300 extra miles). Those turbines work independently and can refill the electric batteries as well.

The interior is luxurious as well, featuring a new series of touchscreens and a speaker system that relies on transducers that line the walls and ceiling, supposedly to compete more effectively with the giant noisy engines right behind the seats.

Of course, the C-X75 is just a concept--I doubt the quoted stats are even possible with today's tech, considering they outpace by a large margin the capabilities of modern hybrids and EVs--but usable, practical ideas could absolutely spring from it. Here's hoping we get to drive something like this one of these days.

At the 2010 Paris Motor Show, Lotus unveiled this four-door sedan 'hybrid.' Mounted in the front is a five-liter V8 sourced From Toyota. It delivers 620 horsepower which is sent to the rear wheels, giving the car a zero-to-sixty time of just 4 seconds and a top speed of 196 mph. There is an optional hybrid drivetrain which uses a Formula 1-style KERS energy recuperation system. Also available is an all-wheel drive platform.

The car remains a concept, though it is slated for production in 2015. Cost to own these exotic beauties is expected to be in the neighborhood of $190,000.



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